Sunday, August 17, 2008

Just delivered to the rod to the customer. He was a VERY happy camper. Anyone headed to Sharkathon on PINS, keep your eyes out for this beast of a rod. It will be hard to miss. Now on to the next project....

So just put a fresh coat of Threadmaster over the existing upper section of the butt that contains the original "Texas Long Casters" decal. Now once this dries, I will apply my custom "Shieldski" decal on the underside. Then the last thing is to mount the gimball on the butt end once it's all done on the wrapper. Rod should be ready to deliver this coming weekend. Finally, the epoxy on the guides is all done. Took 8 coats of Lite build Threadmaster but finally got them exactly where I like them... smooth as glass. Now back to the butt section...

And here is a quick video of what one of the guide wraps looks like with the first coat of epoxy on the overwraps. Now just have to let this dry and apply another 10 coats or so and the guides will be done...

Next, you wrap the left side of the guide and burnish. Then you wrap the right side of the guide and burnish. Then you take the rod outside and align all the guides to make sure they are 100% inline prior to applying any epoxy to the overwraps.

So woke up this Sunday morning ready to get all the guides placed. First thing is to tape them all into place on the zero degree axis. Just got all the underwraps finished. This pic shows the ferrule wrap and the first guide wrap, with the first coat of Threadmaster Lite build applied. Now just have to let this cure well and then guides will be wrapped on Sunday. Stay posted.... Just started the underwraps tonight. They are very simple, made to match exactly the guide wraps that were on the original rod. Black, then band of 12 golds, band of 12 blacks, another 12 bands of gold then finish in black. It's going to look sharp and classic. Here's the long view. Coming together nicely. Next a couple of coats of thread epoxy over the old decal, then we'll be ready to move on to the upper section. Time for underwraps next. Keep posted. Customer opted to upgrade the reel seat to a black aluminum Batson seat. It will last a lifetime and really looks sharp.

So here's a pic of the butt wrap, with the rear grip and winding check installed. I've also put about 7 coats of thread epoxy on at this point, so the finish is like glass. Now time to move up the blank and install the reel seat and foregrip.

Here is the whole butt wrap, also showing tie-off's top and bottom. Much of the pattern will be covered with grips when it's all done. Tie-off's will be hidden underneath the grips so the pattern will just disapper under the grip. Now back to the wrapper for more epoxy. More to come...So we decided that I would do another chevron. So I did the exact same chevron pattern, but this time going the opposite direction, called a reverse chevron. This is a pic of the pattern completed with a single coat of epoxy on it.

Working on a rebuild for a customer. This is a blank that is a predecessor/prototype of the original SU1569 Surf Rod created by All Star. It has been cut down to about 12.5 feet. This thing is really beefy, truly amazing blank. Customer wanted it completey stripped and rebuilt from the ground up. Also wanted to leave everything original looking, but he couldn't stand not putting a little bling in between the rear grips. So we decided on a two axis chevron fade using black and gold. Here is the first pic after the chevy was completed. I called the customer, sent him the pic, and he and I both agreed that there was a little too much blank still showing. So back to the wrapper it goes....